Identifying excessive oil consumption in a used car (1 Viewer)

[MDarius]

Hey, Mud world! My daughter and her husband really want a used Subaru Outback. They can either choose from a version that has known Timing belt and Head Gasket issues, or known issues with excessive oil consumption, leading to downstream issues with cats and sensors and the like.

It's easy enough to find something with a replaced timing belt and HG, but these are the pre-2013 vehicles. Higher milage typically. How do you identify an oil burner when 1 in 50 vehicles were diagnosed with this issue? It's 1 qt of oil every 1k to 1.2k miles, which is standard for an old Land Cruiser, but for a Subaru with 70k to 110k miles it should be unacceptable.

Check the exhaust tip: I think most of it is caught in the catalytic converter(s).
Other suggestions?

Edit: The notorious problem is caused by poorly fitted piston rings. It's a mfg defect with a class action lawsuit against Subaru.

 

[morganism]

This is also an issue with my mums Tercel, and my gals Accord. Is a Japenese thing I guess.

Mech pointed out Euro cars do this from factory, so it's always gonna be an issue, it seems.

 

[haryv]

Hey, Mud world! My daughter and her husband really want a used Subaru Outback. They can either choose from a version that has known Timing belt and Head Gasket issues, or known issues with excessive oil consumption, leading to downstream issues with cats and sensors and the like.

It's easy enough to find something with a replaced timing belt and HG, but these are the pre-2013 vehicles. Higher milage typically. How do you identify an oil burner when 1 in 50 vehicles were diagnosed with this issue? It's 1 qt of oil every 1k to 1.2k miles, which is standard for an old Land Cruiser, but for a Subaru with 70k to 110k miles it should be unacceptable.

Check the exhaust tip: I think most of it is caught in the catalytic converter(s).
Other suggestions?

Edit: The notorious problem is caused by poorly fitted piston rings. It's a mfg defect with a class action lawsuit against Subaru.

I used to work on legacies and different Subarus at one time that was guy that was like 20 years ago but I used to own a legacy and I can't recall seeing oil issues. But I know in Hondas and Toyota Camry I can't recall the model for some odd reason the Rings will stick inside the grooves. And those cases those cars either had high HC or no compression. Have you thought about doing a hot oil change using seafoam? It could be the Rings are sticking in the grooves from an excess of buildup of a varnish and sludge. In both cases into cars I've actually saved their engines from major repairs.

 

[MDarius]

I used to work on legacies and different Subarus at one time that was guy that was like 20 years ago but I used to own a legacy and I can't recall seeing oil issues. But I know in Hondas and Toyota Camry I can't recall the model for some odd reason the Rings will stick inside the grooves. And those cases those cars either had high HC or no compression. Have you thought about doing a hot oil change using seafoam? It could be the Rings are sticking in the grooves from an excess of buildup of a varnish and sludge. In both cases into cars I've actually saved their engines from major repairs.

This was a case of engineering specific to the model years of the vehicle. It's a known issue and under the right circumstances, Subaru will quietly take care of it. Should have been a recall, wasn't. In this situation they didn't get an oil burner, but they got one with a bad CVT transmission. They drove it off the lot about 35 miles, took it back, and after a mechanic inspection the dealer took the car back and gave them their money with their apologies. Nice to find a dealership with integrity.

 

[haryv]

This was a case of engineering specific to the model years of the vehicle. It's a known issue and under the right circumstances, Subaru will quietly take care of it. Should have been a recall, wasn't. In this situation they didn't get an oil burner, but they got one with a bad CVT transmission. They drove it off the lot about 35 miles, took it back, and after a mechanic inspection the dealer took the car back and gave them their money with their apologies. Nice to find a dealership with integrity.

Yeah that is very rare. I bought my legacy in 98 through an auction and then realize the CVT in the rear differential was failing. That's probably reason why it was in an auction. I bet you did fail but it didn't affect the vehicle. It just lost its ability to have for a wheel all the time. You know honestly I should have never bought a car. My car had failed and I had no vehicle for 3 months no. I had $9,000 worth of stock. $5,000 that was Amazon stock. If I held onto my Amazon stock it would be worth $1000000 today but nope I saw that in 1999.

 

[120mm]

My kids just bought a 2008 RAV4 with the nasty 2.4L engine 2AZ-FE and my opinion is "don't" when it comes to buying a known oil burner.

Usually it's being sold because the PO discovered the excessive oil use by running it out of oil.

I just opened my kids' engine up last night, and it was trash.

It's an engineering defect, cannot be "fixed" with seafoam or any other magickal potion, and will eventually (or immediately) affect every engine made with the retarded oil ring (which might've saved literally pennies per unit for the manufacturer.)